Tag Archives: conservative movement

I’m a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to writing and so I was actually re-writing the blog I had written on reparations to answer the next question from black people in the blog series on race “The Top 10 Things Black & White People Want to Know About One Another, But Won’t Ask” because I was not satisfied with it entirely and I came across another valid point which I had missed. Then this morning as I was writing a good conservative friend of mine Stacy Swimp, founder of Contagious Transformation alerted me to the post below from the page of a white conservative and the many comments under it by other white conservatives. In fact, as I type this, Stacy and I are the only two black people that have made comments thus far. Now you have to understand that Stacy and I, although we agree on many things, we also disagree on several things as well. The Trayvon Martin shooting is one such issue which he and I have not entirely agreed upon and racism in the GOP/Conservative movement is another. Stacy has not bitten his tongue in asserting that racism is very real among conservatives (obviously he knows that not all white conservatives are racists) whereas I have defended the movement to the point of ad nauseam probably. I believe that racism exists with the ranks of the GOP/conservatives but is minimal at best.

I stand behind my philosophy that racism is an enemy of conservatism and on that point I believe that Stacy would agree with me. I just have never believed that racism was prevalent among conservatives. When I read this post my jaw figuratively hit the floor. I was hurt, disappointed and quite shocked at the bigotry, hatred and violent nature of some comments quite frankly. Even more disappointing is the fact that these conservatives actually resorted to racism (very quickly I might add) in response to racism! Imagine the irony of that. This is equivalent to literally pouring gas onto an already raging fire or seeing a man drown and throwing more water on him rather than a life jacket. Here is the picture in question which the person posted along with the comments below it:

Now let me be very clear about something before I share the comments under this post. In no way do I support or defend the message on this man’s shirt. As I stated in my last blog on in the race series “The N Word: Taboo to Whites, Endearing to Blacks” I support free speech including pejorative usage, because I believe in upholding the constitution but the user must also deal with the consequences that come from society. I don’t condone use of the “N” word nor “cracker”or any other pejorative. I personally don’t use either word. For those of you that follow my blog you know that I condemn racism of any kind from anyone. Here are the comments posted under this picture on the page of the white conservative (whom I won’t name). I took the liberty to delete their names as well & not every comment is problematic, but most are.

MLK, Jr would roll over in his grave if he knew about this. So sad with the hate!

This is what kills me about the likes of this guy. No one is holding him back from going to his ancestoral home land. Give him some credit, he can bitch and moan, get all the media sympathies and avoid going to a 3rd world, aids ridden, shit hole because we put up with it.

Stacy Swimp This is not a representation of what most black Americans look or behave like. Shame on you for attempting to post something like this to invite disparaging remarks against Black people for recreational purposes. Is this the way you propose to take our nation forward, people?

Now I have highlighted in red the most offensive comments in my opinion. All of these comments are from conservatives (or so they say). Some of them even have said that they are “Christian Conservatives” on their own pages. What is most shocking to me are the comments that call for violence against the man in the picture. I have argued Stacy Swimp down on this topic and have asserted that people that react or think like this are extremists but these are regular, hard working Americans just like me. In my blog where I discuss the GOP and outreach, I roasted the GOP for not doing outreach in minority communities and discussed how important it was in this day and age. How can black conservatives especially (not that they are the only ones) effectively speak with those in our communities about the GOP/Conservative movement when racism and bigotry of this kind is prevalent. This is not the only post like this on that persons page or others.

The anonymity of the internet (hence, social media) allows people to say and do all sorts of strange, racist, sexist and misogynistic things which they’d never say to a person face to face. It kind of reminds me of how liquor loosens people’s lips when drunk. Hmm. White & black conservatives who publicly spew this racist rhetoric should be responding to this hate with love and using this opportunity to educate not ridicule. Everything expressed in most of these comments goes against the principles of conservatism which I fully support. In discussing this post with another friend of mine who is actually a moderate Democrat, he said to me:

“Talitha–if you believe that Conservatives are “better” then it makes sense to think that it is “minimal”. But if you believe that “Conservatism matches my own world view, but they aren’t necessarily better people” then inevitably one comes to the conclusion that the two sides of the political equation can have different, but equally weighted assholes and angels. My belief is that the principles of the Right definitely appeal to racists, and that there are more people who believe in Nature over Nurture on your side of the equation. Not more “bad” people, again–just different flavors of “bad.”

How can I argue with this in light of the comments above? He makes a very valid point actually. These conservatives’ behavior is despicable and no different from that of liberals, whose behavior we often criticize. Another important point to mention was summed up best by Stacy Swimp regarding many black conservatives failure to react at all to things like this:

“ Many black conservatives will publicly admonish black Americans for any and every fault that they can find. However, these same black conservatives will make endless excuses as to why they are silent when whites, particularly white conservatives, are clearly guilty of racist rhetoric or/and actions. Yet, these aforementioned black conservatives don’t understand why blacks don’t trust them. It’s because they are cowards.”